He even entered
the woodsheds and rummaged about after a stray fishbone or an old
sealskin boot, making a great rowdydow in the still night; and only the
smell of man, or the report of an old gun fired at him by some brave
woman out of the half-open window, kept him from pushing his enormous
weight against the very doors of the cabins.
Thinking of all these things, Mooka forgot her fears of the white
wolves, remembering with a kind of sympathy how hungry all these shy
prowlers must be to leave their own haunts, whence the rabbits and seals
had vanished, and venture boldly into the yards of men. As for Noel, he
remembered with regret that he was too small at the time to use the long
bow which he now carried on his rabbit and goose hunts; and as he took
it from the wall, thrumming its chord of caribou sinew and fingering the
sharp edge of a long arrow, he was hoping for just such another winter,
longing to try his skill and strength on some of these midnight
prowlers--a lynx, perhaps, not to begin too largely on a polar bear. So
there was no fear at all, but only an eager wonder, when they followed
up the brook next day to watch at the wolf's den.
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